Key Bindings and Keyboard Shortcuts Summary for “Sid Meier's Civilization VII”

Basic Controls

While Civilization VII is primarily played with the mouse, you can actually perform quite a lot of actions using only the keyboard. For example, moving the camera and advancing turns with keyboard controls is fast, helps you pick up the pace of your inputs, and makes it easier to move on to the next decision without breaking your train of thought. First, make sure you firmly master these two: “movement” and “turn controls”.

UI / Screen Display

Since actions for each panel (Attributes, Culture, Technology, etc.) are assigned to individual keys, mastering these lets you speed up the Civ core loop of “check information → make decisions.” The Civilopedia and the various tree screens are referenced especially often, so it’s best to be able to use keys like P/C/T/L without thinking.

Unit / Combat Controls

Since Civ becomes a repetition of selecting units and taking actions, unit and combat controls are also key bindings you’ll want to master. Once you can handle movement, attacks, waiting, and defense via the keyboard, the game feels especially snappy from the mid-game onward, when the number of units and cities starts to grow.

Others

One subtly useful feature is the “Speech Output” function assigned to the N key. Since it lets you check information at the cursor position, it can be used as a situational-awareness aid, and it’s also helpful if you want to reduce the strain of keeping your eyes on the screen continuously.